I recently replaced my Canon S400 4MP Elph with the Powershot A95.
Right away, the main differences are:
Larger size, partly due to the use of 4 AA batteries. the compartment where the batteries are stored make the camera have an excellent grip which makes the camera friendly for larger hands then the Elph series does. (I'm a woman in my 20's, and I have small hands so this doesn't really affect me)
The batteries, being AA's, not a rechargable Lithium Ion like the Elph, can be easily be bought at any store that sells AA's cheap if you run out while you're on vacation (which will happen often, as digital suck the life out of normal AA batteries)
Saying that, I STRONGLY encourage you to purchase rechargable Ni-MH batteries. I bought the Sony Super Quick BCG34HC charger, which also comes with 4 2300 Ni-MH batteries. The batteries lasted about a week and a half of heavy picture taking with the the flash on and off, along with the display on. For and extra twenty bucks on Amazon, it's worth it.
The LCD is slightly larger.
In addition, the LCD also flips out and around! You can easily frame and take pictures of you and a friend without having to use the self timer.
The manual features are far supieror to the Elph series. The A95 Powershot allows manual focusing! And aperature settings! This is a far improvement and gives you a little more creative control over images. The camera still has a complete auto setting should you just want to use it as a simple point and shoot.
The lenses on the Powershot A95 are interchangable. You can buy telephoto lenses for it (though you must also purchase an adapter for any interchangable lenses for this camera) I think the idea is cool, but the lens and the adapter are NOT cheap. If you bought the camera and the lenses and the adapter, you could spend an extra fifty or hundred dollars and then just get the digital rebel which would allow total creative control with fully manual settings. Again, a fun idea, but maybe try to find the lenses used at a cheaper price.
The camera turns on quickly like the Elph, and has the same small shutter lag. It's not bad, but in low light it takes extra time to focus.
The only qualm I really have with this camera is the LCD screen is WAY too bright. Images look washed out and have innaccurate colors on the LCD screen then when you get them on the computer and print them out. And the worst part about it is, you can't fix it. There is NO way to adjust the brightness level of the LCD screen. On the S400 Elph, you could adjust the brightness level of the LCD screen, on the A95 you cannot. I like seeing my images how they will look when I am changing controls so I gett a correct picture the first time (the whole point of a digital camera!) I think this is an oversight on Canons part and the brightness option should be included on future models.
Basically, what it comes down to is, if you want a camera just for keeping in your purse and using it at parties and simple settings and the like, I would always reccomend the Canon Digital Elph Series. They're small and have incredible image quality.
However, if you want more createive control and the ability to use some manual controls, by all means buy this camera. It can be easily used as a point and shoot, but it really is so much more.
All in all, I'm very happy with the camera and all of the scene modes and extra controls. It's a nice step up from the camera I was using.
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Reviews with images
Best camera on the market in price-range
After weeks of research on the web (here at amazon and at other places) reading reviews, comparisons, etc. I came to the conclusion that this is the best camera on the market for the price.I bought mine here through amazon about 10 days before I was to leave for a long road trip from Oregon to Hollywood through many great stops such as the Redwood Forest, Yosemite National Park, Disneyland, and other great sites. Thus I was very anxious for my camera to arrive.One week after ordering, I checked to see how far along the way it had come - I was hoping (and expecting) to get it any day. To my disappointment, it had only been shipped the day before (5 days after I placed the order) and I was certain it wouldn't arrive on time for my trip.To my great surprise and relief, the camera was delivered by UPS only a few minutes before I was to leave. (I was packing up the car and seriously on my way out the door when he came.)The point of my long story is that I had no time to read the instructions before leaving, so I had to rely 100% on the camera being self-explanitory and very easy-to-follow for people like me who had frankly never used a digital camera before.Suffice it to say that it was VERY easy to learn, and I was able to get by on my 3,000 mile trip using only the auto functions.Take a look at my pictures (uploaded to the images section for this camera) to see the results.The only features I couldn't find (without looking it up in the manual) were: 1) the self-timer. 2) speed-shooting multiple pics pushing the button once (a series of pictures only miliseconds apart from each-other).As you can clearly see, I am not very experienced with cameras and I don't even know what half the features are called. But I was able to take magnificent pictures without even opening the manual! :)The things I learned that I wish I knew earlier on are:1) when taking night shots, use a tripod or lower the ISO. It was very hard to keep might shots from becomming very blurry. (The shutter is generally opened for longer to allow in more light.) If you are taking pictures of moving objects (such as people) in the dark, and don't want to use a flash (to keep more of the background in or for whatever other reason) you can lower the shutter speed beforehand. Look it up in the manual because it's not easy to explain or very intuitive.2) Most of the time pictures will look better without the flash, but (as mentioned above) you need a steady hand or a good tripod. Sports mode helps a bit as it lowers the shutter speed some.3) When you take a landscape picture where the mountains (or whatever) are dark and the sky very bright, you will notice that the exposure tends to be lighter, taking out much of the detail from the mountains. To fix this, you lower the frame a bit (focus on the mountains with the sky barely visible in the shot) and then lightly press the shoot button and hold it down while the camera focuses. Then (still holding the button half-way down to keep camera focused) slightly raise the camera so your frame is now half landscape and half sky. Then finish pressing the shoot button completing the picture. The exposure stays locked to the darker mountains allowing for more detail in the shot.4) For landscapes or anything more than 10 meters from your camera, everything will automatically be in focus so there is no need to worry about it. (In Yosemite I was often worried that if I focused on a waterfall, rather than the rocks around it the shot might turn out strange, but it all was crisp and beautiful regardless of which I chose to use as the focus point.)Last minute advice: Make sure you...1) get one (or more) 256 or 512 flash card as the measly one that comes with the camera only allows for about 20-30 pictures. I recommend SanDisk 512 which Amazon currently sells for under $40. 512 Mb will give you well over 350 pictures on the default settings. (I believe I got 385 or so on mine.)2) get 2 sets of rechargable batteries and a car-charger.3) get a case with a silky lining that snugly fits your camera so as not to scratch anything. And make sure it has an outside pocket for extra batteries and an extra flash card. I recommend one that closes completely (with a zipper) so it will get protected from rain or if you drop it in a puddle or something.That's all. Happy photo-shooting! :)
